Missouri-based Super PAC wades into far-flung Senate race

A Missouri-based Super PAC initially set up to help bolster the Senate campaign of Sarah Steelman has now expanded its sights well outside the Show-Me State, targeting Democrats in Montana, Arizona, and Ohio.

The Now or Never PAC was formed this February with big checks from several wealthy Missouri conservatives, including:

*Stanley Herzog, and his St. Joseph-based company, Herzog Contracting Corp., which together have donated a combined $350,000 to the PAC.

*Rex Sinquefield, a retired investor who made his fortune as a money manager and has crusaded against state and local income taxes in Missouri. He’s given $200,000 to the Now or Never PAC. He was recently profiled in this New York Times piece.

*Peterbilt of Springfield Inc., a trucking company owned by Glenn Larson, which has given $35,000.

Its biggest donor appears to be a group called Americans for Limited Government, a conservative nonprofit based in Virginia that says it is “committed to advancing free-market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties.”

Americans for Limited Government donated $1.95 million to the Now or Never PAC in September—more than half the Super PAC’s total fundraising haul, according to campaign finance reports. Overall, the Now or Never PAC, based in Kansas City, has raised $2.7 million since February.

The Now or Never PAC launched some of the nastiest ads in Missouri’s hard-fought, three-way U.S. Senate primary between Steelman, John Brunner, and Todd Akin.

Since Steelman lost that race, the Super PAC has moved on, targeting Heidi Heitkamp, the Democratic Senate nominee in North Dakota, and Jon Tester, the Democratic incumbent in Montana, among others.

It’s unclear who at the Now or Never PAC is deciding which Senate races to wade into—or why Sinquefield, Larson and others are so eager to influence elections hundreds or thousands of miles away from Missouri.